Brainwaltzera – Epi-Log EP (Film)

Shadowy electronic producer Brainwaltzera spent 2018 releasing a couple of EPs on Furthur Electronix and Analogical Force, but this latest 12” EP ‘Epi-Log’ sees him making a return to the Berlin-based Film label for a collection of six tracks that sees him bringing his ‘Poly-Ana’ trilogy that started with the album of the same name, to a close.

As you’d expect, these new tracks follow a similar stylistic post-IDM trajectory to those two preceding releases from Brainwaltzera, but there still manage to be more than few new tricks packed in there. Proceedings open with a new ‘Fairytale version’ of ‘Poly-Ana’ album track ‘Triangulate Dither’ that drops a thudding 4/4 kickdrum into the centre of the mix, but in this case it feels obscured and refracted by the blurred trails of what almost sound like flutes and whirring electronics that whirl around the backbone of techno rhythms.

‘Laif Of Smit’ reaches out into crunked out hiphop as dark buzzing synths growl against bass drum kicks and finger clicks, the treated female vocal samples and twinkling piano keys that rise into the foreground adding a hazily hypnotic feel, before ‘CountDemPops’ takes things off in a minimalistic direction that calls to mind one of Funkstorung’s pared-back explorations through jittery metallic rhythms, wavering crystalline melodies and juddering background whirs.

Elsewhere, ‘Bad Endgar’ closes this EP with what’s arguably its most gorgeous moment as delicate wistful synths drift over a backdrop of busily flexing breakbeats that suggest Aphex or The Black Dog more than anything else. An excellent EP from Brainwaltzera that sees him bringing his ‘Poly-Ana’ trilogy to a close with characteristic panache.